It gives me such a headache…

I can’t exactly call this story breaking news but I’m guessing most of my readers won’t have seen it yet.  

I hear people say all the time they can’t drink red wine or sometimes wine at all because it gives them a headache. I hear it often enough it gives me a headache.  

Wine science has pretty much debunked the idea that it’s related to sulfites, found either naturally or in small quantities in almost all wine, the exception being a very small number of people who have allergies to sulfites. If you don’t believe it, take the dried apricot test. They contain substantial amounts of sulfites and should cause the same reaction. Take two and call me in the morning. 

Other theories include dehydration, alcohol (duh), histamines better known for their role in seasonal allergies, and pointing a finger at potentially dozens of other compounds among the 1000’s that can be teased out of wine in a chemical analysis. Some people swear it’s only red wines that bother them. Sometimes it’s specific grapes. People have told me it’s the tannins in red wine. The truth is no one really knows.  

I was fascinated to read about a team at the University of California at Davis, the premier institute for wine science in the US, who were embarking on a mission to answer the question about red wine once and for all. They couldn’t get a grant for a formal study, so they turned to crowdfunding. The goal was $25K and they couldn’t raise more than $4K, so they called it off in February of this year. 

For all the complaining, and I’m not saying wine isn’t associated with headaches, you’d think they could have found enough money to lay the issue to rest. There are probably some entrenched interests who would prefer not to know-like maybe the entire wine industry? After all, if it truly is an innate component of all or certain types of wine, imagine the headache that might cause in new laws, label warnings, and even claims by Cameron Diaz that her so called “clean” wines don’t have the offending substances. That’s a story for another day…  

Here's a link to the now shuttered crowdfunding page with the researcher’s original pitch. For more generalized advice on dealing with headaches and other hangover symptoms, my suggestion is try milk thistle, one capsule mid-day and one before you start drinking, and lots and lots of water. This tip was provided by no less a drinking authority than Jancis Robinson herself, and if it’s good enough for her, it’s good enough for me. Drink in good health.